The Micah Parsons contract saga may be reaching a critical impasse as the 2025 NFL season nears. The All-Pro edge rusher and the Dallas Cowboys remain deadlocked in extension talks with little progress in recent months. Parsons, who enters the final year of his rookie deal this 2025 season, expects to become one of the highest-paid defensive players in NFL history, but the two sides remain far apart on key terms.
“I would say right now, we’re nowhere on that deal,” Adam Schefter said on his podcast. “I would say right now we are further away from a deal in late July, early August than we were in late March, early April. The two sides have gone backwards, not forwards. I don’t think they’re speaking very much these days, if at all. There was communication in late March and early April when Jerry Jones and Micah Parsons were sitting down and discussing a deal and making progress and tracking toward getting that deal done, but this negotiation, when it was a negotiation, has gone sideways, because it’s not a negotiation right now.”
Cowboys CEO and co-owner Stephen Jones offered a brief update Sunday that shed light on where both sides currently stand. The comments came as fans are growing increasingly impatient. During the team’s “Opening Day Ceremony” at training camp Saturday in Oxnard, California, owner Jerry Jones was met with chants of “Pay Micah!” while addressing the crowd.
Micah Parsons contract saga: Jerry Jones says Cowboys fans’ ‘Pay Micah’ chants were ‘faint little sound’
Brad Crawford
“We want to pay Micah, too. He’s gotta want to be paid,” Stephen Jones said via The Athletic’s Jon Machota.
The tension is evident, but both sides appear to be holding firm as negotiations stall, leaving the situation unresolved heading into the new season.
“There’s really no conversation about getting a deal done,” Schefter continued. “That could change next week, it could change surely before the season. We’ve seen how long Dallas sometimes waits on some of these deals, see CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott last season. This sounds different to me. This sounds a little bit more personal from both sides. It sounds like Dallas is upset with the fact that it felt like it was getting closer to a deal and that deal went sideways. And I think Micah Parsons feels like this deal should have been done.”
Parsons quickly cemented his status as one of the NFL’s elite pass rushers, making the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons. Unlike some high-profile edge rushers who have sat out offseason activities amid contract talks, Parsons showed up for the mandatory minicamp in June and is at least a limited participant at training camp — a somewhat surprising choice given the ongoing negotiations over his deal.
“I don’t think Micah is real happy with them,” Schefter said. “I don’t think they’re really happy with him. I don’t think anybody is real happy with anybody. And I don’t think there’s a deal that’s being discussed right now, not to mention being close.”
The Cowboys exercised Parsons’ fifth-year option, keeping him under contract through 2025, but his scheduled $24 million salary next season falls well short of his expected market value.
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Author: Cody Nagel
July 29, 2025 | 1:26 pm
